Chinese science association urges self-discipline for scientists

The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) has called on the country's scientists and researchers to be self-disciplined and strongly oppose academic dishonesty.

Although China has achieved huge improvements in science and technology fields, academic cheating has occurred from time to time, said CAST, which issued a guideline on academic ethics for the nation's scientists this week.

There have been several scandals in which foreign journals have retracted papers from Chinese authors since 2015, causing negative social impact and damaging China's national image, said CAST.

In the guideline, CAST highlighted some "bottom lines" for the professionals, including "no fabrication" "no plagiarism" "no impersonation" and "no bribery."

CAST encouraged innovation and originality among scientists to advance the country in science and technology.

The medical journal "Tumor Biology," published by Springer Nature, retracted 107 Chinese papers this April, after an investigation found the peer review process had been compromised with fabricated email addresses of reviewers.

China's Ministry of Science and Technology is currently investigating the scandal.

In March 2015, BioMed Central, a major publisher of medical and science journals based in the United Kingdom, retracted 43 papers because of fabricated peer review, 41 of which were written by Chinese scholars.